Based Leyonhjelm smacks down Australian media liars over US gun laws

David was only incorrect on one thing, we’ve also had school shootings:

Note that all bar one of them happened after John Howard’s infamous laws. The obvious retort is that they are far fewer and less frequent than the US which is true, however, it shows that school violence is not an exclusive phenomenon to the US. The one at Tomaree happened with a crossbow, but considering how over regulated they are in Australia it’s a valid inclusion. China also has had numerous school stabbings but we hear very little about those.

One thing Leyonhjelm failed to mention is that the long term per capita US homicide rate has declined 49% since 1980:

In that same time period, the firearm supply has doubled and the number of concealed carry permit holders is now in excess of 16 million people nationally.

“Gun sales are up, and accidental gun injuries are down, according to a report released this month by the National Safety Council. The NSC’s “Injury Facts -2017 Edition” shows a 17 percent decrease in accidents involving firearms from 2014 to 2015, a period when gun sales soared.

There were 489 unintentional firearms-related fatalities during that time period, the lowest total since record-keeping began in 1903, accounting for less than 1 percent of accident deaths. This decrease, which was the largest percentage decline of any category cited in the NSC’s report, came in a year that saw record-high firearm sales.”

He is also dead on about the long term trend in Australia. There was a 46% decrease in firearm deaths in Australia between 1980 and 1996, according to the ABS themselves:

But yeh, insert usual platitudes about John Howard here.

Leyonhjelm is 100% correct in stating that comparing Australia to America is a simpleton, false binary argument. The omission of a multitude of important factors from the discussion is the rule not the exception in Australia and indeed, anywhere.

Reminder about what you can get on a Cat A licence in New Zealand and no mass shootings there in 21 years:

The Australian media have been going full tilt all week in their usual peddling of mythologies around firearms.

Thank god there’s at least one voice of sanity among the pointless screeching.

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Firearm Owners United was founded in response to the many hysterical voices crying out for further gun control in this country.
We already go through so many hoops to get our firearms as it is. We do not need more hoops. We don’t need a mother/father figure deciding what’s the best for us.
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